Chinese aircraft undergoing cold weather tests

Beijing: China is testing its first home-grown aircraft with a flight range of 3,700 km to check the performance of its hydraulics and other functions in extreme cold conditions.

The 78-to 90-seat aircraft, ARJ21-700 completed a three-hour flight from Xi`an in Shaanxi Province to Manzhouli City, Inner Mongolia on Thursday, according to the jet`s manufacturer, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac).

A spokesman with the company told official Xinhua news agency that the jet`s cold-weather trial would continue for a week to test the performance of its hydraulics and other functions in Manzhouli, where the daily average temperature is 30 degrees below zero.

The jet has a maximum flight range of 3,700 kilometres and maximum altitude of 11,900 meters.

So far, ARJ21-700 has completed more than 900 hours of tests during 400 trial flights since November 2008, when the plane made its first trial flight in Shanghai.

Comac is working to get US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification.

If achieved, the ARJ21 will be the first Chinese commercial aircraft to receive US approval.

China`s AVIC International Holding Corporation signed a deal with Comac to sell 100 ARJ21-700 baseline models overseas at an air show held last November in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, which brought the number of the jet orders to 340 in total, the news agency reported.